


a perfect place for a fresh start

by theresblametoshare



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Cheating, Everyone is bored, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:08:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24739771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theresblametoshare/pseuds/theresblametoshare
Summary: Irene is a boring housewife whose husband gets deployed. Wendy moves next door and tries to make Irene's life less boring.-Cross-posted on ao3/aff.
Relationships: Bae Joohyun | Irene/Son Seungwan | Wendy
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	1. begin again

The house was ugly and the graffitied walls did not help. Vines grew up the side of the house, covering an entire window. The gray paint was chipped and a few windows were broken. The previous owner had wrecked the house because it was foreclosed but at least Seungwan got the home for a good price. 

It was her first home. She wasn’t planning on moving into a house, but she couldn’t pass up the chance to live in a nice neighborhood close to her work. It was so unlike where she used to live. A perfect place for a fresh start.

She pulled into her driveway and chuckled at how her house stood out like a sore thumb. In between standard suburban housing stood her tall, old, Victorian.  
The house was not better on the inside. The floors and walls had holes. Cobwebs and graffiti covered surfaces. 

Seungwan could make out one of the spray-painted sentences, “fuck my life.” She agreed. 

It didn’t take her long to unpack. She didn’t have a lot of stuff, and the stuff that she did have, she lost in the breakup. 

When all of her stuff was at least inside the house Seungwan sat down on the one piece of furniture on the first floor, an old green crushed velvet sofa that the previous owners left. She tried to make herself comfortable, but her old guitar that leaned against the wall haunted her. 

She didn’t even know why she kept that old thing. She had smashed it and the only thing that held the guitar together was the strings. It was unplayable. But she still took the effort to move it to her new life. All it did was remind her of the past.

She stood up and picked up the guitar and gently placed it into the coat closet.  
Bang. 

Bang.

The sound startled Seungwan. It sounded like someone was attacking her front door.

She walked to a window that overlooked the street. There on the sidewalk was a teenaged girl in a wheelchair with two bright pink casts on her legs, throwing rocks at her front door.  
Seungwan took a deep breath and opened her door. Unfortunately, at the same time a rock came flying at her leg. “Fuck!” She screamed in pain. That would leave a bruise. She took a few seconds to compose herself. “What are you doing?”

“Throwing rocks at your house.” 

Seungwan just gave her a look.

“There’s no way for me to get to your front door.”

Seungwan looked down. That was correct. Her house was raised, and she did have a few steps leading to the deck. “Okay but why did you want to knock on my door in the first place?” Young people are not known for being friendly neighbors.

The girl sighed, “I’m bored.” She looked down at her wristwatch. Seungwan didn’t know teenagers still used wrist watches. “Normally at this time our crazy neighbor goes on a jog. It’s strange though she should be out here. She follows her schedule exactly.” She laughed, “I swear she probably has Yerim annoys me, Five-twenty-six on it.”  
She made Seungwan confused and a bit scared. “Oh uhh well why don’t you go bother her.” 

The girl shrugs and wheels herself over to the yellow ranch next door. The foundation is not raised much, so she easily knocks on the door.  
Seungwan should stop looking. She wanted nothing to do with the girl, but still she was intrigued. 

She watched a beautiful woman answer the door. She was small and in casual but classy clothes. Her black hair cascaded down her shoulder perfectly. Seungwan couldn’t tell from where she was standing, but it looked like the woman was crying. 

Their conversation ended, and the girl returned to her house. “She’s pretty isn’t she.”

Seungwan felt her cheeks heat up, “huh.” 

She’s not ready to like someone. Especially someone she doesn’t know. She’s been out of highschool for years. She can’t obsess over the pretty girl who had no idea she existed anymore. 

“By the way, I’m Yerim. I live right over there.” She pointed to the house across the street from Seungwan’s. Then She stopped talking and just looked at her like she was waiting for something. 

“Oh, I’m Seungwan.” 

She then wheeled herself back home.

++

Seungwan answered the door to reveal her bright-eyed neighbor from the yellow house next door. Her smile, though seemingly fake, stretched from ear to ear and she held a dish in her hand. She was even prettier up close. “Hello, I’m Joohyun. I live right next door to you.” She pointed to her house. “I just thought I would welcome you to the neighborhood with a homemade plate of cookies.” 

“It’s nice to meet you, I’m Seungwan.” She grabbed the plate from her extended hands. “I really appreciate this thank you.”

“Like a good neighbor, Joohyun is there.” A voice came from behind Joohyun. 

Yerim was on the sidewalk trying to hold in her laughter from her joke.  
Joohyun’s watch buzzed. “I have to go. It was nice meeting you Seungwan.” She blurted as she speed-walked away.

Yerim was still there. Seungwan wondered why she even was there. “Do you not have any friends?” 

“That’s rude,” Yerim fired back, “and yes, I have friends. I’ve just been grounded from hanging out with friends and leaving the cul-de-sac for the summer.” She frowned.  
“Why?

“Wow, now you want to be all in my personal business.”

Seungwan gave her a compassionate look.

She sighed, “Okay, I went to a party at the end of the school year and got super drunk so when the cops came I tried to run away, and then I got ran over by a car.” She sat silent for a moment. “I’ll probably never walk again. So now no friends, no leaving the cul-de-sac, and no electronics.” 

Seungwan was speechless. That didn’t sound fair. “That sucks.”

“Yeah.” 

++

Seungwan sat on the roof right outside her bathroom window. She had decided that since she bought a house, she would have to do most of the repairs herself. That meant sitting outside in the June heat trying to replace a few shingles that had fallen off. 

The only experience she had in roof repair was a seven-minute YouTube video she had watched before climbing out her bathroom window. She thought the roof looked good so far.

Her bathroom window overlooked Joohyun’s backyard, and from the roof, there was an even better view. Joohyun came outside a few minutes after Seungwan had started work on the roof. Her arrival drew Seungwan to the backyard.

Joohyun’s backyard was what you would expect. There was a patio with seating and a colorful umbrella. Beautiful plants outlined the perimeter. A small shed sat in the back corner, and though lesser kept than everything else in the backyard, it still had charm. A wooden fence enclosed the area.  
Joohyun had come out to do some gardening. Seungwan watched as she carefully attended to her plants. She wore an enormous hat to keep the sun out of her face. She also looked so peaceful and happy. It made Seungwan smile. 

Joohyun stood up from where she was kneeling and turned around. “You know just because you don’t think I can see you staring does not make it any less creepy.” She said. 

Heat crept up Seungwan’s cheeks. “Yerim said you were weird. So I was just curious.”

“You’re getting your neighborhood gossip from a seventeen-year-old,” Joohyun put her hand over her mouth and laughed.

“Okay fine do you want to have tea with me tomorrow and you can inform me about the neighborhood?” Where did she get this courage?

“Why tea?”

“My ex loved tea and when we broke up, I took all the tea with me.” It was an awful idea because her ex bulk bought her tea for Costco, so Seungwan had a giant box of tea sitting in her kitchen. She didn’t even like tea.

“I don’t trust you to make tea. Come over to my house at two tomorrow.” She said bluntly. She started walking back into her house. Just before she got to the door she turned around and hollered, “And no need to bring your own tea, I have plenty.” 

++

At two fifteen the next day, Seungwan knocked on Joohyun’s door.  
“You’re late.” 

“Sorry, the traffic was bad.” 

Before Joohyun could respond Seungwan walked into the yellow house. Joohyun’s house was almost what you would expect. From what Seungwan could see in the entry, it was modern and mostly soft colors. The tan couch had perfectly placed floral throw pillows. Pictures of her and who Seungwan assumed was her husband hung in beautiful frames on the walls. Everything went together, except for the taxidermied bear head that hung above the mantle on the fireplace. 

Seungwan stared, mouth agape, at the head. It felt so out of place in Joohyun’s beautiful home. The roughness of the head took away from the softness of the room, almost ruining the interior design.

“My husband is a hunter.” Joohyun said, reading her mind. “He likes to keep his favorites.” She sounded unpleased with her husband’s hobby.  
Seungwan followed her into the kitchen, which again was almost perfect. But a taxidermy bunny sat on the window seat. 

They sat across from each other at the round table in the kitchen. Joohyun had out a fancy tea set and poured Seungwan’s tea.  
“So what do you want to know?” Joohyun asked, looking at Seungwan.

They talked for a little about the insignificant life of their neighbors on the cul-de-sac. It was nice. Joohyun never let her guard down, but she would occasionally smile, which would send shivers down the blonde’s spine.

Finally, Seungwan brought up one of the two people she was interested in knowing about, “What about Yerim?”  
“Until three weeks ago you would have no clue she lived here. She was always hanging out with her friends.” Joohyun takes a sip of tea, “Has she told you about what happened to her?”

“She has,” Seungwan thought it was funny how fast Yerim opened up to her. “Bored people will tell you anything.” She realized by that logic Joohyun would have the most interesting life. She knows nothing about her. Everything felt so fake. “That’s why I’m surprised I know nothing about you.”

“What do you mean?” She looked at her like she did not understand her life was so boring. Like she had no idea that life could be so much more. 

“Well, from what I have seen about your life and what Yerim has told me it’s kinda boring.” Seungwan regretted her words once they came out. Maybe she was being too harsh. Joohyun was married, but it didn’t seem like her husband was enhancing her life, just filling it with stuffed animals. “I mean you have minimal proof of having a husband and I have never seen him.”

She looked down at the table and started fidgeting with her wedding ring. Her ring was beautiful and looked a lot more expensive than someone who lived in her house could afford. “He was deployed the day you moved in.” She removed her hand from the ring and started picking at her nails instead. “Your life seems no more interesting. I rarely see you leave your house. How do you even make money?”

“I teach science at a middle school so I have summers off.” She hadn’t wanted to teach kids so young, but all of her professors recommended that she did because she was so nice. She enjoyed it though. She liked the way kids’ brains worked a lot more than adults. “I had a second job teaching piano to kids, but I had to quit because my ex-girlfriend owned the shop I taught at.” 

“Girlfriend?” Seungwan shouldn’t fear Joohyun being homophobic, she knew she was a sheltered housewife, but it still stung how she made it sound so foreign. 

“Ex.” 

++

Seungwan left Joohyun’s house satisfied. She had bonded with Joohyun and that was more than she expected out of their tea. Maybe she could help spice up Joohyun’s life a little.

As she approached her house, she caught Yerim doing donuts with her wheelchair in her driveway. 

“Hey Yerim I have an offer for you.” She grabbed the handles of her chair to stop her from spinning.“If you can get your parents’ verbal agreement I’ll let you help me fix my house and for every hour you work I’ll let you spend thirty minutes on my computer.” Seungwan felt bad for the girl and though it wasn’t her decision how Yerim was punished, she didn’t think a little computer time would hurt. 

Yerim looked appreciative. 

“We don’t have to tell your parents about the last part. We can just say you’re working to get out of the house.”

Her face broke into a gigantic smile, “Really! Thank you so much.”

Yerim changed back into her nosey self. “So now why I’m here. What did you and Joohyun talk about?”  
Seungwan remained silent.

“Come on, if you tell me I’ll tell you my biggest secret.”

“We talked about the neighborhood, you,” Seungwan gestured to Yerim. 

Yerim smiled and pointed at herself like she enjoyed the attention. 

“And our love lives, specifically my ex.” Seungwan did not elaborate any further. She waited for Yerim to realize that she was done talking. 

“Okay wow, I can’t believe I’m saying this.” She shook her hands and looked at the ground. “I like country music.” 

Seungwan couldn’t help her disgusted reaction.

“Hey! What did country music ever do to you!”

Everything.


	2. delicate

Yerim laid in the grass in front of Seungwan’s house. Her hands were behind her head and a baseball cap covered her face while Seungwan assembled the ramp so Yerim could get into her house.

It was a pleasant June morning. Not too humid, and with a light breeze. It was a good morning to build a ramp.

Seungwan wanted to buy a few pieces of wood from a hardware store and make that into a ramp, but Yerim wanted one from a kit. And since the ramp was for her, Seungwan caved. 

Assembling the ramp was not as easy as Seungwan had hoped. To make matters worse, halfway through reading the instructions the temperature rose so Seungwan took off her shirt, leaving her in a tank top. 

Joohyun came out of her house about an hour after she had started to put the ramp together. She was wearing a cute summer dress and looked perfectly put together compared to Seungwan, who was sweaty and only wearing shorts and a tank top. Joohyun also carried a pitcher of lemonade. “You guys look like you have been working hard.” She approached them with a smile. “So I thought I would bring you a little lemonade.”

“Uh thanks.” Seungwan accepted the glass and let Joohyun pour the lemonade, but Joohyun seemed distracted by something because at first the lemonade missed the glass. Joohyun blushed and apologized before taking a deep breath and pouring the glass again.

“Um a little help here.” Yeri whined, stuck lying on the ground. Joohyun and Seungwan each grabbed one of her arms and carefully sat her up. Once she was stable Joohyun handed her the glass of lemonade. She let out a little thank you in between sips.

They stared at each other. “So um I have stuff to do so uh bye!” Joohyun broke the silence.

“Bye.” She waved goodbye. Once Joohyun had already walked away Seungwan screamed after her, “Thanks again for the lemonade.”

Yerim chuckled.

++

A tall girl stood on her front porch, wearing an old t-shirt and jeans covered in paint. A large black backpack hung from her left shoulder. 

“I thought there were supposed to be two of you.”

“I work with my boyfriend. It’s an on and off kinda thing. Right now, it’s an off thing.” She walked into the house without Seungwan inviting her in.   
Seungwan had found the painter from a flyer at a coffee shop. They were college students who would paint for cheap and got paid by the room. She had wanted to paint herself, but after three minutes of painting her living room, she realized she had to hire someone. 

“I’m Seungwan.” She held out her hand. 

She reciprocated Seungwan’s handshake. “I’m Sooyoung.” 

Seungwan showed her around the house and introduced her to Yerim. The only room ready to be painted was the living room, so Sooyoung started there.

++

Seungwan couldn’t hear the doorbell over Sooyoung’s music, but she could hear the loud pounding on the door.   
She opened her front door to reveal Joohyun standing with her arms crossed. She frowned and stared at Seungwan. She said something, but it was drowned out by the music. 

“What?” Seungwan screamed.

Seungwan stepped outside and closed the door behind her. The music was still loud, but she could hear the car that drove past them, so it was better.  
“Can you please turn the music down? I can not concentrate with that horrendous music blaring through the neighborhood.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry. I hired a painter, and I wanted to make sure she felt comfortable so I didn’t want to ask her to turn it down, but I didn’t realize how loud it was.” She turned towards the door, “I’ll go ask her now.”

Joohyun’s face softened, her scowl went to a straight face and her eyes relaxed. “Thank you.”

Seungwan went inside to ask Sooyoung to turn down her music, and Joohyun went back to her house.

++

“Where is it?”

Kang Seulgi, Seungwan’s best friend since college, stood at her front door. She looked as innocent as ever with pleading eyes.

They met sophomore year when they were randomly assigned as roommates. Both of them were not fond of their roommates from the previous year and felt it was fate that they ended up together.

“Wow, no hey Seungwan nice to see you or Seungwan your house is so interesting.”

“NicetoseeyouSeungwan yourhouseissointresting.” She sputtered out, “Now where is it.”

“Oh my god,” she sighed, “follow me.” She motioned for Seulgi to step into the house.

Seungwan led Seulgi to the kitchen, where she climbed up onto the counter and opened one of the higher cabinets. She felt it was safer hiding it somewhere Yerim couldn’t reach.

She pulled out the small bag of weed that she had found in the floor of one of the bedrooms. “Are you sure you want this? You don’t know where it’s been.” She knew it was a terrible idea texting Seulgi about the weed, but she found the small hello kitty bag of weed funny. She should have expected that she would want it.

“Yes! Free weed.” She reached out for the bag. 

“Does Jisoo not give you a friend's discount?” She asked while she climbed down from the counter. 

“She does, but it’s still not free.”

Seungwan reluctantly dropped the bag into Seulgi’s hand, “Okay, but if you die, then that’s not my fault.”

They walked into the dining room where Yerim was listening to music through airpods attached to Seungwan’s phone. Seulgi quickly shoved the small bag into her pant’s pockets.

“Hey Yerim, I want you to meet my friend.” Yerim was too consumed by the music so Seungwan had to pull out her airpod to get her attention.  
“Hey!” She snatched the airpod back.

“Yerim this is my friend Seulgi.” Seungwan motioned to Seulgi “I just wanted you to meet her before she leaves.”

“Hey.” She responded like an uninterested teenager.

“Hi!” Seulgi gave a bright smile and a big wave. 

Yerim responded with an eye roll. 

++

“What do you want me to do with this broken guitar?” Yerim screamed from the front of the house.

Seungwan had put her in charge of cleaning out the trash left behind from the previous owners.

Seungwan’s face grew pale, and she stopped what she was doing. “Leave it there.” 

“Are you sure it’s unplayable?”

Seungwan walked over to the coat closet where Yerim had found the guitar. She grabbed the handles of Yerim’s chair and pulled her away from the closet. 

“Hey!” 

“The guitar stays.” Seungwan scolded.

“Okay okay.” Yerim raised both of her hands up as to surrender. “Do you want to talk about it?” Yerim asked.

“Not to be rude but you’re a child you wouldn’t understand.”

Yerim looks at her with gigantic eyes. “If it has to do with heartbreak, I do understand.” She looked down at her hands. “Uhh maybe it’s not the same because I’m not an adult, but uh.” She paused, her eyes welled up with tears, “it hurts.” 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

Yerim only nodded her head.

While Yerim composed herself, Seungwan made her ex’s tea and then they sat together on the green couch.

“Her name is Chaeyoung. She was always the weird art kid in class, but we became close when we were partners for a project in english. It confused both of us so we spent a lot of time texting trying to figure out the project. We started dating like seven months ago but she broke up with me after I got grounded because we couldn’t see each other.”

“Huh.” Seungwan almost smiled. 

“What.” Yerim looked offended by her reaction. 

“Kid, we have a lot in common. My ex is also named Chaeyoung.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where is Wendy’s HGTV show?
> 
> Also, I’m not really happy with this chapter but I wanted to get it out because I’m super excited to write the next one.


	3. breathe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: panic attack (it's not super descriptive)

Seungwan awoke to the sound of glass being shattered. She turned her head to the alarm clock on the floor. It was only twelve-fifteen. Then she heard a scream and sprung up from her mattress that laid on the floor without a frame.

She had slept with her windows open to air out the smell of paint. She was used to the sound of teenagers laughing and animals screeching, but this was not that.

The sound seemed to have come from Joohyun’s house.

Seungwan’s mind swarmed with thoughts of fear. What if someone was trying to break into her house? Joohyun was a small woman living alone. She would need help.

Still in a sleepy haze and without thinking rationally, Seungwan decided she would save Joohyun. She shoved her phone into her sleep shorts pocket and grabbed the baseball bat she kept in between the mattress and the wall.

She ran out of her house barefoot and to Joohyun’s front door. The door seemed to not have been tampered with. She put her hand on the handle and the door opened with a turn. Joohyun was the kind of person who had her doors locked at all times of the day. It scared Seungwan that her door was unlocked. 

Once she entered the house she heard loud breathing and whimpers coming from the kitchen. Seungwan put the bat behind her back, ready to strike, and walked towards the sounds.

What she saw in the kitchen was not at all what she had expected.

The light was on and the first thing Seungwan saw was the entire granite counter covered in glass tupperware that held food. A few of the tupperwares were in the sink and one was on the ground. Some food was old and smelt rancid. The window that looked towards Seungwan’s house had been smashed, like someone had thrown a ball through. 

Seungwan found Joohyun under the kitchen table in the fetal position. The sight made Seungwan drop her bat. The sound of the metal against the tile started Joohyun, causing her to jump up, hitting her head on the table.

Joohyun laid on the ground. “Oh, my god I’m so sorry Joohyun!” Seungwan bent down to Joohyun’s level. She was about to put her hand on Joohyun’s knee to comfort her but pulled away, not knowing if Joohyun wanted to be touched.

Joohyun sat up. “Wh-what are you doing here?” She stuttered out.

“I thought someone had broken into your house.” Seungwan didn’t know if she should have come. She didn’t Joohyun to be more uncomfortable than she already was.  
“Oh.” Joohyun moved her head to look at the floor.

“Um.” Seungwan scratched the back of her neck, “Do you need any help.”

It took Joohyun a while to respond. She seemed distracted, watching her toes move up and down. “No.”

“Are you sure?” Wendy knew that she needed help, but she also did not want to pester her.

“I mean. If it’s not, if it’s not a bother, would you mind grabbing a piece of plywood from the garage so I can board up the window?” She asked after she had calmed down a bit. “I don’t want to look at the hole in the glass.”

Seungwan left Joohyun alone on the kitchen floor while she went to the garage in the back to get the wood.

When she came back Joohyun was still in the same position. She boarded up the window herself. She had thought of herself as kind of a construction expert after spending a few weeks on her house.

When the wood covered the window Seungwan returned to Joohyun.

“Hey do you want to talk about it?”

“No, it’s stupid.” She wiped away a tear with her wrist.

They sat in silence for a while. Joohyun looked so small and frail under the table. She always seemed so put together. It scared Seungwan.

In the silence, Seungwan noticed how many clocks Irene had. They all had distinct sounds but ticked at the same time. She wondered how long it took for Joohyun to set them up. 

Seungwan didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want Joohyun to be alone. So she sat on the floor with her back to the counter and waited.

She didn’t know the protocol for finding your neighbor you barely know in this situation, so she occupied herself by picking her nail polish, not wanting to look at Joohyun.

After some time Joohyun climbed out from under the table, “I’m going to go shower.” Seungwan’s eyes followed her until she walked around the corner. 

++

Joohyun looked shocked when she entered the kitchen and Seungwan was still there.

She was wearing pink pajama pants and an oversized white college shirt. Her wet hair had left marks on her shirt. Seungwan thought she looked cute. 

“You’re still here” Her eyes lit up. At that moment, Seungwan knew she did the right thing by staying.

Seungwan blushed, “of course.”

She stood over Seungwan. “Uh, can I ask you something?” She scratched the back of her neck and Seungwan nodded. “Why didn’t you call the police?”

She felt her face heat up, “Uh I honestly didn’t think of it.”

“I’m glad you didn’t. It would be a lot more embarrassing having a stranger find me like that.”

“Do you want to talk about what happened?”

Joohyun gave a small nod, but she asked if they could talk in the living room instead because it was hard for her to look at the mess.  
They sat on the tan couch. Joohyun wrapped herself in a blanket and Seungwan waited for her to be ready to talk. 

“I just miss him so much.” Tears welled up in her eyes.

“I don’t know what to do with myself without my husband here.” She took a deep breath. “I’m so used to my routine but without him here everything feels wrong. I learned to cook for him because he liked home-cooked meals, but I guess I’m so used to the pattern of making meals for both of us. I don’t want to change my life, but now I have all these leftovers.” She looked so defeated. 

“Joohyun, do you cook for him for every meal?”

“Of course. But lunch isn’t a problem because we eat separate things.” She started fidgeting with her hands, “So there're no leftovers.”

Seungwan was not comfortable giving life changing advice (her advice would be leave your husband and marry me) to someone she didn’t know. 

“I have a solution, but it might sound selfish.”

Joohyun waited for her solution.

“Give me the other serving of food.” It didn’t come out the way Wendy had planned. She thought she sounded abrasive and like she was using Joohyun’s pain for her advantage.

“You would really do that?” 

“Get free food made for me every day. Yes.”

Joohyun jumped up from the couch and hugged Seungwan, “Thank you!” She then realized what she was doing and backed away. “sorry.”

Thirty minutes later, Joohyun was asleep on the couch. Seungwan put a pillow under her head and covered her with a blanket. 

She felt okay leaving, but she would return in the morning to check on Joohyun and to fix the window. A woman living alone shouldn’t have a broken window for too long. 

The irony was Seungwan herself had a few broken windows, but they were harder to fix because the house was older and used custom sized windows. Joohyun’s would be excellent practice. 

++

“Coming,” Seungwan screamed while she ran down the stairs to answer the door. 

She opened the door, and behind it was her ex, Chaeyoung.

“Hey Wen!” She gave a slight wave. 

Her long blonde hair flew in the wind like she was a movie star. She also didn’t seem bothered by Seungwan’s presence, which angered Seungwan. 

“Don’t call me that.” She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. “Why are you here?”

“I wanted to deliver your royalty check.” She held out the bright pink envelope. 

Seungwan accepted the envelope. “You could have just mailed it.” 

“Yes, but I also came for my tea.” 

“Aren’t you rich now? Can’t you buy your own?” Seungwan could see through her lies. She could tell there was an ultimatum. 

“You know it’s not like that.”

Seungwan just wanted her to leave, so she walked to the kitchen and grabbed the gigantic box of tea. “Here,” she shoved the tea into her and then slammed the door in her face.  
It felt foreign being rude to her. They used to be the nicest couple, always sharing complements and doing things for each other. But now being around Chaeyoung made her want to combust. 

She headed up the stairs when she heard someone climbing through the open window in the living room. She regretted having her house painted.

“Get out of my house.” She didn’t even turn around to yell. “I don’t want you stealing any of my stuff like you stole my songs.”

Seungwan walked back down the stairs and into the living room where Chaeyoung stood. 

“I didn’t steal them, you’re getting paid.” Chaeyoung looked at her like she was innocent. “I have something else I want to talk to you about.”

“I don’t care.”

“Wen please.” She reached out to touch Seungwan’s arm, but she slapped her away. 

“Don’t call me that!” Seungwan just wanted her gone. She was trying to move on, but the woman she had been in a relationship with for the past five years showing up at her house did not help. “Fine. I’ll give you five minutes, but then you have to leave.” 

They sat on opposite sides of the green couch. “I was wondering if you wanted to write songs with me again?”

How could she?

Seungwan had given up music after the breakup. She couldn’t look at the guitar Chaeyoung had gifted her the same. Every strum of the instrument or hum from her lips reminded her of Chaeyoung and what she did to her. 

“No.” She said strongly. 

“Come on! My first two songs, the ones we wrote together, are my best. The stuff I’m writing by myself just doesn’t feel the same.” she slumps her shoulders. 

“That’s not my fault.” There was no way Seungwan would cave. She wouldn’t put herself through that again. 

“You would make a lot of money.”

“I’m doing just fine.” That was a lie. It would be a lot easier to fix her house if she had more money. 

“Please.”

“We were supposed to be doing this together. You took the opportunity to go solo. You took our songs and made them into country songs.” Seungwan shuttered. Maybe the country part was her worst offense. “You knew what that meant for us. I won’t do it.” Tears started running down her face. 

“Fine!” She said harshly. Realizing her mistake, she softly said, “I respect your decision.” Chaeyoung gave in. Her head angled at the floor, she got up from the couch and walked to the door. “Goodbye Wen.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how military stuff works nor do I care to learn so whatever I say is right in this universe.


End file.
